Yevgeny Prigozhin

Yevgeny Prigozhin (1 June 1961-) was a Russian oligarch and key ally of Vladimir Putin who controlled a network of pro-government companies, in addition to running the Internet Research Agency and Wagner Group.

Biography
Yevgeny Prigozhin was born in Leningrad, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union in 1961. In 1981, he was sentenced to 12 years in prison for robbery, fraud, and teenage prostitution, and he was released after nine years. In 1990, after his release, he and his stepfather set up a highly successful hot dog company, and he also owned the "Old Customs House" in Saint Petersburg and was nicknamed "Putin's Chef" for owning several restaurants and catering businesses which hosted foreign dinners for President Vladimir Putin. Prigozhin also had several underground operations, including secretly running the Wagner Group private military company, an army of cheap mercenaries which the Russian government employed in the Central African Civil War, the Second Libyan Civil War, the Syrian Civil War, and the Donbass War. Their main base in Russia at Molkino was guarded by Russian Army soldiers and blocked off to the public; it was nominally home to an Orthodox Christian shrine (which was built by a Prigozhin company), but the complex secretly housed the Wagner Group's main base. Prigozhin also funded Russian-language programming in the Central African Republic to deepen relations between the nations and led the Internet Research Agency, which was responsible for meddling in the 2016 presidential election in the United States to derail Hillary Clinton's campaign.